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We’ve got to give it to Olympus–despite the fact that Sony seems to have the larger overall mirrorless camera market share, Flickr’s most popular mirrorless camera for 2014 was the Olympus OMD EM5. Who can blame you when the current price is only $599. This camera is the one mirrorless camera that seemingly changed everything. It had a retro SLR style camera body, great image quality that holds up even today, fast focusing, and pretty much all of the features that a photographer will need.

In fact, I still use mine.

The report from Flickr, which was published last month and referenced by company reps in conversations with the Phoblographer, shows that the EM5 was not only popular last year but also for 2013. Yes, we’re talking about gear here, but it also means that the camera is solid enough to still be a popular option. In fact, the Canon 5D MK II and Canon Rebel 600D are still popular DSLR options amongst the community.

However, when it comes to actual camera ownership and popularity across the community there is a clean battle between Apple, Canon and Nikon trying to edge its way into the otherwise awkward three-way battle. Yes, your beautiful Apple product is popular, but it also means that the community has evolved into something that’s all about creating beautiful images instead of focusing on gear overall.

More statistics are after the jump, but we wonder how this might affect future mirrorless camera sales if at all. We’re probably thinking too deeply into this, but when a camera is just so damned good, why bother to upgrade at all?

For the photographer on a budget of around $40, what would you expect from a printer? Considering that it costs less than some bottles of liquor, you really can’t expect it to do a whole lot except for printing. That’s pretty much the idea behind the Canon PIXMA iP2820 printer. Depending on what establishment you go to, it can cost you more money to get a print made than to do it yourself in the convenience of your own home and with very little work on your part with the exception of calibration.

While in 2014 we’d personally want more from a printer like this, you have to consider that there are even camera straps made and sold more expensive than the iP2820.

Everyone (well mostly everyone) loves taking selfies. And last week a brand new type of selfie was created. Coined by Beats by Dr. Dre, the #soloselfie requires the user to shoot a video, start at one ear, bring the camera around to their face and complete the 180 degree angle by bringing it to their other ear. That’s essentially what it is, or what it will evolve into. The trend in a new ad prominently features the popular Beats headphones and loads of celebrities doing the #soloselfie.

At the time of publishing this post, the video has just under 9,000,000 views. But it spurred a viral movement amongst many Beats users and many people in general that just want to try one.

With the announcement of OS X Yosemite yesterday, Aperture has officially fallen off to the wayside as Apple focuses all its energies on improving iPhoto. While it’s been confirmed Apple was officially killing off Aperture since late June, Adobe just put out a new, free plugin allowing you to easily import your photo library to Lightroom.

The recently released Aperture importer tool can import both your Aperture and iPhoto library. The importer will transfer your images while keeping the metadata intact along with your star rating, GPS data, and even keywords. The only thing the free tool can’t transfer is edits made to photos, so the plugin will simply import copies of both the original and adjusted images.

Adobe explains you’ll find the importer in the Lighroom menus under “File -> Plug-In Extras -> Import from Aperture Library (or iPhoto Library).” Once selected, the tool will prompt you to point it to the folder holding your old image library. After that you can customize what data the plugin transfers including: Flags, Star Ratings, Keywords, GPS Data, Rejects, Hidden Files, Color Labels, Stacks, and Face Tags.

“I like to combine sometimes architecture structures, nature and human forms.” says Tom Krieger on his double exposure work. “After combining the double exposure I love to use some other apps like Mextures to add lights and structures. Matter is a really great app, too.”

We discovered his work on EyeEm during the recent awards. Tom Krieger is what I like to call a true photographer. He started 25 years ago with his first Nikon without AF just for fun. “Later on I used this camera to experiment with long exposures in the mountains of the French Alps or as an action cam on my hang glider also as a landscape photographer.” Unlike other photographers and wannabes, he understands that the camera is just a tool as a painter and illustrator to paint in a photorealistic style.

“Today I use several digital cameras and lenses and have my own studio for reference shootings. My iPhone is always with me and my point-and-shoot cam.”

Mr. Krieger states that he loves to create images with his iPhone. “It is this simplicity to focus on the essentials of the image design. And I love to play around with apps.” states Tom. He explains his process as working with apps like Diana. After this he scrolls through his other images on his phone to combine with the one he just show. Then he plays around with apps until he gets exactly what he wants from the image.

“I think when a photo is different from others it allows interpretations. I do not really care whether it is a successful image or not. I’m relatively detached in this matter. That makes me feel unbound and detached.”

Every photographer would love their own personal storage cloud. And in a way, Western Digital is giving that to photographers. The latest entry to their My Passport line is the My Passport Wireless, which is a step below their My Cloud drives. The advantage of the Cloud option is that you can access your images from anywhere as long as the drive is on. But with the My Passport Wireless drive, photographers get a different experience.

Hypothetical situation: you’re with a client, showing them some examples of work that you’ve done for engagement shoots. But they want to see more and you only have around two loaded onto your iPad. Simply boot up your Western Digital My Passport and access any of them that you’d like.

For photographers, security is important–and having your own hybrid of a server, cloud, and hard drive in one is more or less a godsend.